LOCAL Senedd Member Samuel Kurtz has challenged Labour's climate plans, following Welsh Government backing for a ‘Carbon Budget’ that advocates cuts to Wales’ livestock numbers.

Through Mr Kurtz, the Welsh Conservatives have challenged the Welsh Government over plans that could see livestock numbers reduced across Wales, following Labour’s backing of climate change regulations that call for cuts to farming.

During questions to Labour’s Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs in the run-up to Christmas, and with the start of SFS imminent, the Senedd Member for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire pressed the Deputy First Minister, Huw Irranca-Davies MS on whether the Welsh Government supports reducing livestock numbers.

This follows the Welsh Government’s decision, alongside Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats, to back the UK Climate Change Committee’s Fourth Carbon Budget, which explicitly states that achieving Net Zero by 2050 “requires reductions in livestock numbers”.

Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Samuel Kurtz MS, said:

“By voting in favour of these climate change regulations, Labour, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats have signed up to the UK Climate Change Committee’s call to cut livestock numbers in Wales, and they cannot dodge that reality.

“The Deputy First Minister’s smoke-and-mirrors answers only confirm what farmers already fear: that Labour, along with their budget bedfellows in Plaid and the Lib Dems, are prepared to sacrifice Welsh agriculture in pursuit of climate targets.

“All this comes at a time of mounting uncertainty over the Sustainable Farming Scheme, the ongoing failure to eradicate bovine TB, unworkable NVZ ‘farming by calendar’ rules and the cruel Family Farm Tax.

“Welsh agriculture has no friends in Labour, Plaid Cymru or the Liberal Democrats. Only the Welsh Conservatives are standing up for our farmers and food producers.”